Amendment to Section 15M of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Act, 1992

The Cabinet  approved the proposal of the Department of Economic Affairs for amendment to Section 15M of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Act, 1992, to enlarge the field of selection for the post of Presiding Officer (PO) of the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), by including sitting or retired judge of a High Court with a minimum seven years of service, as a Judge of a High Court as one of the qualifications. Amendment to the SEBI Act, 1992 will be done on the lines of the approved Ordinance and a Bill will be introduced in the ensuing session of Parliament to replace the Ordinance with such modifications of drafting or consequential nature, if any, in consultation with the Legislative Department. 

The SAT was set up under Section 15K of the SEBI Act, 1992 to adjudicate upon the appeals against the decisions of SEBI. The SEBI Act 1992, inter-alia, under Section 15M specifies that a person shall not be qualified for appointment as the Presiding Officer of Securities Appellate Tribunal, unless he is a sitting or retired Judge of the Supreme Court or a sitting or retired Chief Justice of a High Court. The existing prescribed qualifications made selection to the post of PO, SAT difficult. As a result, filling up the post of PO, SAT had been pending for quite some time.

SEBI moots tougher norms for corporate governance

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), to further tighten corporate governance norms, has proposed tougher guidelines for listed companies to make their functioning transparent and to enhance investor's trust in the capital market.

The consultative paper on "Review of Corporate Governance norms" has suggested following guidelines:

a) The splitting of the post of chairman-cum-managing director thus giving greater responsibilities and powers to independent directors and to avoid concentration of power with one person. This may lead to changes in the structure of a large number of Indian companies, mainly PSU and family-owned firms, where one person holds the position of chairman-cum-managing director (CMD).
b) The appointment of independent directors should be done only by minority shareholders, such directors should be formally trained to be on company boards and they should also be regularly evaluated for their performance by an exam, under National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM), a training body under SEBI
c) SEBI is also aiming to change Clause 49 of the listing agreement between companies and stock exchanges to align it with the proposed Companies Bill. Listing agreement deals with the rules that all listed companies should adhere to remain listed on the bourses. These rules, although aimed at making the Indian market a safer place in terms of corporate governance, could lead to shortage of good independent directors since remunerations for these people may not commensurate with the duties and responsibilities.
d) SEBI also proposed that while resigning, an independent director should disclose the reasons for his/her decision.
e) The board should eliminate policies that promote excessive risk-taking for the sake of short-term increases in stock price performance and ensure that a risk/crisis management plan is in place.
f) It has proposed mandatory disclosure of ratio of remuneration paid to directors and their median staff salary.

The market regulator has also suggested hefty penalties for non-compliance of the revised corporate governance norms. Stating that delisting would affect investors and prosecution was a costly and time-consuming process, SEBI, to strengthen the monitoring of the compliance, has suggested carrying out of corporate governance rating by credit rating agencies, inspection by stock exchanges/ SEBI for verifying the compliance made by the companies.

Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM) to open a representative office in Myanmar

In order to increase the bilateral trade between the Northeast India and Myanmar, Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM) will open a representative office in Myanmar.
Exim bank has 10 offices across the country and seven offices across the world. Northeast India accounts for Rs 1000 Crore export out of which agriculture account for less than 5 percent.